Perspective (graphical)

Internal medicine

Epistemology

Philosophy

Political science

Artificial intelligence

Archaeology

Economics

Psychology

Computer science

Realm

Management science

Moderation

Meta-analysis

History

Criticism

Medicine

Social psychology

Annual Review of Psychology

▪ Abstract We describe the history and current status of the meta-analytic enterprise. The advantages and historical criticisms of meta-analysis are described, as are the basic steps in a meta-analysis and the role of effect sizes as chief coins of the meta-analytic realm. Advantages of the meta-analytic procedures include seeing the “landscape” of a research domain, keeping statistical significance in perspective, minimizing wasted data, becoming intimate with the data summarized, asking focused research questions, and finding moderator variables. Much of the criticism of meta-analysis has been based on simple misunderstanding of how meta-analyses are actually carried out. Criticisms of meta-analysis that are applicable are equally applicable to traditional, nonquantitative, narrative reviews of the literature. Much of the remainder of the chapter deals with the processes of effect size estimation, the understanding of the heterogeneity of the obtained effect sizes, and the practical and scientific importanc...

Meta-Analysis: Recent Developments in Quantitative Methods for Literature Reviews